This
Thomas Nast cartoon, published in the November 20, 1869 issue of Harper's
Weekly, celebrates the ethnic diversity and envisions the political
equality of citizens of the American republic.Joining the Thanksgiving Day feast of hosts Uncle Sam (carving
the turkey on the far-right) and Columbia (seated on the far-left) are
Americans from all over the world:German, Native American, French, Arab, British, African,
Chinese, Italian, Spanish, and Irish.Behind Uncle Sam is a large picture of Castle Garden, the main
immigrant depot in the United States, with the inviting label reading
“Welcome.”(Located at
the foot of Battery Park in southernmost Manhattan, Castle Garden was
the primary station for processing immigrants until replaced by Ellis
Island in 1890.)

The cartoon also has the
specific aim of endorsing ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution, which was intended to guarantee
that federal voting rights could not be denied on the basis of race.The Fifteenth Amendment had been passed by Congress in February
1869 and was being debated in state legislatures when the featured
cartoon was published.The
Republican-controlled New York legislature ratified the measure, but the
fall 1869 elections returned a Democratic majority, which soon reversed
the earlier vote.However,
the amendment did gain the approval of enough state legislatures to
become part of the Constitution in March 1870.

Here, the centerpiece of the
Thanksgiving Day table is a monument to “Self-Government” and
“Universal Suffrage,” while a sash bearing the designation “15th
Amendment” appears above a portrait of the then-current president,
Ulysses S. Grant.(The
visual separation of “amen” from the rest of the letters in
“amendment” may be a purposeful reflection of the Thanksgiving
theme.)Joining Grant in
Nast’s portrait gallery of great American presidents are George
Washington and Abraham Lincoln, under the latter of which is written the
martyred president’s plea of “with malice toward none and charity to
all.”The placement of
Columbia between a black man and Chinese man is significant,
representing Nast’s consistent support of their civil rights and
opposition to the violence and discrimination inflicted upon them.

Festivals and ceremonies of
thanksgiving for bountiful harvests date far back in human history,
having been celebrated by the ancient Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks,
Hebrews, Romans, and other groups.In the United States, the first Thanksgiving is usually
associated with the English Pilgrims in Massachusetts.Those Protestant dissenters, also called Puritans, had rejected
the holy days (holidays) of Christmas, Easter, and Saints’ days on the
Roman Catholic and Anglican religious calendars, and therefore
recognized only the Sunday Sabbath, fast days, and thanksgiving days.However, the Pilgrims did not consider the feast in the fall of
1621 with their Massasoit Indian neighbors to be a religious day of
thanksgiving, but a harvest festival like the ones traditionally
celebrated in their native England.

The New England Puritans did
dedicate certain days to thanksgiving when harvests or wars were
successful, and days of atonement when the results were unsatisfactory.On the thanksgiving days, the community gathered at the
meetinghouse (the Puritan name for a “church,” a term considered too
Catholic to use) to give thanks to God for the blessings bestowed upon
them.They then reconvened
for a celebratory dinner, which largely assumed the festive role that
Christmas dinner held in England and other colonies.By the mid-seventeenth century, a thanksgiving day in the fall
was an annual event in New England.The Continental Congress declared the first national day of
thanksgiving in December 1777, and in each December through 1781 and
again in 1783.Presidents
George Washington and John Adams revived the practice, with President
James Madison proclaimed two thanksgiving days in 1815, the year the war
of 1812 ended.

Thereafter, the holiday
reverted to regional variations, with New England states observing
Thanksgiving in the early-nineteenth century, soon joined by other
Northern and Midwestern (“Western”) states and territories, and
Southern states by mid-century.In the 1840s and 1850s, the holiday increasingly lost its
primary religious focus and became a secularized fall festival of family
reunions, feasting, and charity to the poor.

The leading proponent of a
national day of thanksgiving was Sarah Josepha Hale, a New England
novelist, poet (best known for “Mary Had A Little Lamb”), reformer,
and editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, the popular and
influential women’s magazine.Every
year between 1847 and 1863, she editorialized in favor of a national
Thanksgiving Day.During
the Civil War, President Lincoln declared a national day of thanksgiving
in April 1862 and August 1863 (after Gettysburg), but it was his
proclamation in November 1864 that set a precedent followed by all
subsequent presidents.In
1941, Congress formally established the fourth Thursday in November as
the nation’s Thanksgiving Day.